Legal and Functional Status of the Public Prosecution office in the Moroccan Judicial System - A Comparative Analytical Study

Over the past decade, Morocco has chosen to embark on an experiment aimed at making the Public Prosecutor’s Office independent of the executive branch, by severing any links that might bind it to the Minister of Justice, and by enshrining this independence not at the constitutional level, but at the legislative level. Although this initiative continues to face numerous challenges and issues, it has not been accompanied by a review of the legal and operational status of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which gives rise to many problems and contradictions. In this article, the author seeks to shed light on the legal status of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to examine the problems it raises, and to explore ways of strengthening and consolidating it. To this end, the author adopted an analytical and comparative approach, analysing the legal texts governing the Public Prosecutor’s Office and its relations with the other branches of government, identifying the issues they raise in this regard, and then exploring possible solutions to strengthen its legal status. The researcher has reached several conclusions, the most important of which is that the public prosecutor’s office holds numerous conflicting powers, the most significant of which remain the oversight of detentions and the initiation of prosecutions. Furthermore, this institution remains immune from any recusal, despite being part of the independent judiciary. For this reason, the author recommends limiting the powers of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to those relating to investigation and preliminary inquiry, whilst subjecting them to the oversight of an independent judge.